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METRO GROUP delegates its board member Pieter Haas to Management Board of Media-Saturn

6 May 2014

The METRO GROUP has paid tribute to the tremendous achievements and the enormous contribution made by Horst Norberg, who announced his resignation as Chairman of the Management Board at Media-Saturn-Holding (MSH) on Tuesday. At the same time, the Duesseldorf-based trading group has decided to delegate his fellow Board Member Pieter Haas to MSH's Management Board as Deputy Chairman in order to intensively press ahead with the essential repositioning of the company.

"We are very sorry that Horst Norberg has resigned from his position in these circumstances. However, we understand and have great respect for his decision", said Olaf Koch, Chief Executive Officer of METRO AG. "Horst Norberg has done great things for Media-Saturn over more than two decades and has played a major role in crucial decisions for the company, not least regarding the recently announced repositioning and restructuring of Media-Saturn. He did an exemplary job of making sure Media-Saturn was geared to changing market conditions and customer demands. Horst Norberg has always put the company at the centre of his dealings. We thank him very much for his extraordinary commitment, his long years of tireless effort and his tremendous achievements."

Due to Horst Norberg's resignation, METRO GROUP will delegate its fellow Board Member Pieter Haas to the Management Board of Media-Saturn as Deputy Chairman so that he, along with the other Executives, can drive the strategic reorientation and the necessary subsequent restructuring of the consumer electronics retailer. As Deputy Chairman, he will formally assume the role of Acting Chairman of the Management Board. "Pieter Haas is an absolute expert in the consumer electronics market and also has crucial knowledge in key areas of innovation," said Olaf Koch.

Pieter Haas has already worked in various positions at Media-Saturn from 2001 to 2013, most recently as the Managing Director / COO responsible for such areas as Strategy, Saturn Brand Management, Multichannel / Online trading and IT. Since April 2013, the 50 year-old has been a member of METRO AG's Management Board in charge of Media-Saturn, Business Innovation and IT. He will retain his executive position at METRO AG, but will give up his Business Innovation and IT functions when he takes his seat on MSH's Management Board in order to concentrate fully on Media-Saturn. It is intended that Georg Mehring-Schlegel - MSH Management Board Member delegated from Metro - will make the move to Media-Saturn's Extended Management Board.

METRO GROUP is one of the largest and most important international retailing companies. During the financial year 2012/13 (pro forma), it generated sales of about €66 billion. The company operates around 2,200 stores in 32 countries and has a headcount of around 265,000 employees. The performance of METRO GROUP is based on the strength of its sales brands that operate independently in their respective market segments: METRO/MAKRO Cash & Carry - the international leader in self-service wholesale - Media Markt and Saturn - the European market leader in consumer electronics retailing – Real hypermarkets and Galeria Kaufhof department stores.